Lightning tries to move past Saturday's ugly loss

The admittedly embarrassing 5-0 loss to the Bruins Saturday night was tough enough for the Lightning to swallow.

But now Tampa Bay must wait four days to get that bitter taste out of its mouth, as it doesn’t play again until Thursday when it hosts the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks.

For some, like defenseman Victor Hedman, who was a minus-five Saturday, it can’t come soon enough.

“Usually, when you have a tough game like I had, you want to get right back into it,” Hedman said. “But you have to be professional about it, you have to face adversity sometimes. We obviously can learn from this. The good thing is that it is game eight and not game 75 with a lot on the line. But we can’t come out like this and expect to win a hockey game. We have to refocus and we will come to work again (today).”

The Lightning (5-3), which took Sunday off and returns to practice Monday, was more disappointed in (italics) how (italics end) it lost Saturday than the actual result. Boston came into Tampa Bay’s home ice and won all the key battles, showing more grit than the Lightning, with center Steven Stamkos saying “they wanted it more.”

It was a stark contrast from the Lightning’s stellar start to the season, having won five of its first seven games by playing a strong, all-around game.

“It will be the way we continue to play, being tenacious, being gritty, having that so called jam, that fight, the fight in the dog,” coach Jon Cooper said. “I think maybe sometimes, you won a few games in a row, you’re feeling good about yourself, and then somebody comes in and.. it’s like, ‘Oh okay, this just doesn’t come easy.’ You can’t just throw your stick and helmet and say, ‘Okay boys, shinny’s on, let’s go play.’ And I think for (Saturday), we did that.”

Will be interesting to see what the Lightning does in goal Thursday. Ben Bishop had been red-hot, but gave up four goals in 17 shots Saturday and was pulled with five minutes left in the second period. Tampa Bay could turn to Anders Lindback and gave him his first start since Oct. 12. Or stick with Bishop, who beat the Blackhawks in Chicago Oct. 5.

Either way, something has to change.

“We’ve got to put this in the past,” Bishop said. “We’ve got a very hard test coming up in the defending Stanley Cup champions. We can be a lot better, and we will be.”